Schoolstuck
by Kayla-Peixis
Summary: Nikki thought she had left her old life behind when she moved to L.A. She had new friends and a new life and pretended she didn't care about the life she left behind. But that all changes the day her school gets 12 new kids...(I kinda suck at summaries). I don't own Homestuck and this uses OCs.
1. Who do you think you are?

I woke up, groggy and sleep deprived. It took me a minute to find the off button on my alarm because I was too lazy to sit up to hit it. I had stayed up till around 2:30 in the morning last night, texting Angel and Jenna and writing in my journal. No one ever asked me about my notebook and I would never read any of the stories in it to anyone. Maybe some time in the future I would finally explain it all to my friends. I remember the one time at a sleep over I read the most recent story in my book on a dare and they all stared, awestruck at me. Afterwards they asked me about it and my inspiration and I changed the subject. That was also the night the found out who I had a crush on. It was a boy at my old school who they asked constant questions about all night. I told them he was grumpy and rude when you first met him but if you got to know him better he was super nice and sweet. They asked me if he was hot and I said I guess but I never thought of him as _hot _or _sexy _or anything like that. He was just him.

I got up and slid my red notebook into my backpack. I got dressed with matching shoes, jewelry, and top which was just because my friends (Jenna, Angel, and India) all had identical outfits today because it was the day after spring break, AKA moving day. There were three major moving days in Los Angeles High (which was usually just called L.A High) which were: the first day of school, the day after winter break, and the day after Spring Break. People tended to move in and out of L.A High because it was in Los Angeles, city of broken dreams as my mom put it. People who have plans to be movie stars or fashion models come here, usually fail and then move away. Few people stayed at L.A High very long but new kids were constantly showing up. But almost all of them showed up after one of those three days, hence the name 'moving day'. Two years ago my mom got a job here, in one of the outside towns, 5 miles from the city, so I was here to stay. Even though I thought a fancy private school in L.A would be hard to fit into, I found they all weren't rich children of famous people. Some of them were just as weird and nerdy as I was. Actually most of them were nerdy because you had to be really smart to get into this school. I instantly joined a group of weirdly over obsessed girls who were already a group. Every once and a while a mean girl would show up, bragging about how her mom was going to be rich and famous, but they would leave usually by the next year. A few stayed though, and sometimes I swear they could make are school into a TV show. Little did I know it was about to get so much weirder.

I made my way to school as slowly as possible, partly because I was too tired to go above a slow jog. L.A High was a little over half a mile away from my house so I would always walk, which was way better then taking the bus. I admit I was day dreaming about my crush, and more importantly, our last conversation on Facebook. A while after I moved I chatted with my friends and crush every day, but lately it seems like we've been drifting apart. Wait correction, _they _have been drifting apart. They stopped replying to my messages and when they do the replies have always been short and mysterious, promising to explain it later. But the problem is the _'later' _never comes. I felt like giving up until I got my crush's last FC chat which went like this.

Me: Hi.

Me: I can see you're on. I will not be ignored.

Me: I will spam the heck out of you.

Me: I know you hate that.

Me: Really? No response?

Me: Whatever. I don't care anymore.

Me: I give up. I really just give up.

Me: Bye! See you never ever again. This new school is better than the mad house.

Me: So bye, freaks. I wish I could say I miss you.

Me: Oh my God I want you to know I'm crying my head off right now.

Me: You jerks! I miss you guys, and you don't care.

Me: I'm deleting you. Bye.

Him: Nikki! Wait.

Me: NO I'M DONE WAITING!

Him: Please! I'm so sorry. We are jerks. Please I need to tell you something.

Me: You've got a minute. Go.

Him: Ok. This is my entire fault. We've all had a lot to deal with lately but I told them not to text you because I didn't want to freak you out. But I'm sorry. Blame me. I fell as guilty as heck. Trez just read your text from a while ago.

Him: The one about needing someone to talk to.

Him: She came and hit me with her pillow exactly 21 times. One for each time she didn't answer you or said 'can't talk now' or 'tell you later'.

Him: Then 34 more for all the times I did that.

Him: So I'm sorry.

Him: That said I really can't explain now. But I can soon.

Me: OH MY GOD! AGAIN! Seriously do you even care about what this is doing to me?

Him: Please vent your hate onto me. I deserve it. But let me finish.

Him: I will tell you soon in person hopefully and then you can beat me up or understand.

Him: But I have to go. We have a lot of crap to do.

Him: But see you soon.

Me: Doubt it.

Then he logged off and I lay on my bed and had a good cry. He was such a jerk, but I loved him. 'See you soon'? Who did he think he was? It got my hope up before, but now it just made me even madder.

By this time I had reached school and walked to my locker, grabbing by new math book. I clicked into reality and listened to everything around me when suddenly India appeared.

"Hey! Nice outfit." She said, grabbing her English book from her locker.

"You too," I said, grinning as I closed my locker, "Any rumor on the new guys."

"Heck yes there's a rumor! I would have thought you would have heard it already! It's spreading like wildfire."

She suddenly had my full attention "What is it!" I said, completely losing my cool.

"12! 12 of them! That's a new record! Also rumors claim they're here to stay!" she had an evil twinkle in her eyes and a huge smile on.

"I smell new friendships and new rivalries and mean girls." I said with I sigh. "I'll go scope them out," and I left to make my way to the office.

When I got up there I looked around for some new kids when I spotted someone sitting in the waiting area at the office, staring at his shoes, looking grumpy and well, new. I walked closer to the waiting area to say hi or at least to see his face. As I got closer he looked up at me and I let out a gasp.

He was here. My crush.

Karkat Vantas.


	2. Welcome to the Show

_It was a rainy October afternoon in 6__th__ grade. It was just after our teacher left us for an indoor recess and all 13 of us were already bored out of our minds and we would much rather have been playing in the rain. Instead we were trapped in the world's smallest class room with nothing to do. Even Gamzee looked bored and he's usually off in his own world. Suddenly he whispered something into Karkat's ear with made him go bright pink and scream 'Heck no Gamzee!' Which Gamzee replied "Dude it was the one time you thought of something fun to do other then watch rom coms and fail at hacking". Karkat looked insulted but gave in and pulled out a piece of paper and split it into four sections writing four words over each part with a symbol under each. Matesprit with a heart under it, Morail with a diamond under it, Kismesis with a spade, and Auspistice with a club. By now we had all swarmed around him even though we had no idea what was going on. He looked up at us and rolled his eyes and shoved the paper into Gamzee's hand and said "I'll tell them you fill it out." Gamzee was obviously not happy with this so he gave the paper to Karkat, pulled his chair out and picked Karkat up. "PUT ME DOWN!" he cried, flipping out while the rest of us were laughing like idiots. Gamzee was a nearly a foot taller than we were and a foot and half taller than Karkat. He walked over to a corner while Karkat mumbled about how embarrassing this was while Gamzee said "heck no bro, it's cool." He put Karkat down in the corner and said "Write, bro." and walked back over to us. Then he explained what the heck was going on._

_Quadrants was a game where everyone has a piece of paper with a drawing like Karkat's on it. Then someone asked you to either fill it out and show it to them or do a dare (The dare couldn't be quadrant related). The Matesprit stood for basically your crush/boyfriend/girlfriend, Morail for your best friend, Kismesis for your enemy, and Auspistice for basically you rival and someone who is friends with both you and your rival who makes sure you guys don't kill each other. By the time Gamzee was done explaining Karkat had stormed over and handed the paper to Gamzee who glanced over it and said "same as before," to which Karkat replied "It never changed." Gamzee shrugged and said "Oh yeah, one more thing. Never tell anyone what the paper says. Ever! Or I will go to your house and pour mountains of Faygo on you."(A promise he kept when Vriska told Kanaya what Tavros put) we all laughed and started playing until recess was done. After that we always would play that with each other, at recess or at each other's houses._

"Karkat," I whispered and he stood up and gave me a hug, and I couldn't tell if it was an 'I like you more than friends' hug or a 'you have been forever friend zoned' hug. When he let go the first words out of his mouth were, "I have a lot of explaining to do."

"Heck yeah you do! What on earth are you doing here?"

Then I heard a familiar voice calling "Karkat! Where are you? I can't go anywhere without you, you idiot." And a girl stumbled into the office's lobby. She had messy short brown hair and red glasses and a cane with a dragon head on top of it."Ugh," she said, stumbling into her brother "Karkat? Is this you?" she then started poking his face "Hmm…it seems like you…" and I giggled at her, flopped over Karkat, and Karkat's face looked like he was either going to kill himself or her.

Suddenly Terezi's (that was her name) head perked up and she forgot about annoying her brother "What…is that… no, it can't be. Karkat couldn't be right…"

Karkat rolled his eyes "I can't be right? What do you me-" he was cut off by Terezi slamming her hand on his face and mumbling "Karkat, Karkat, Karkat, shut up and tell me who is standing before me,"

"Nikki. Nikki Kirk. You know…your best friend," but you could barely hear what he said over Terezi's spazzing.

"OH-MY-GOD-NIKKI-I'M-SO-SORRY-THIS-IS-ALL-KARKAT'S -FAULT-OMG-HUG!" and with that she flung herself and me and gave me a huge hug. She had dropped her cane and what looked like her schedule on the floor. I hugged her back, almost crying. I was so happy my crush and my best friends would be going to my school I didn't see how it could get any better. But it did.

"Nepeta! Karkles was right!"

Then I was knocked down by my _other _best friends, Nepeta Leijon tackle-pounced me from behind. Then my third best friend appeared.

"Nikki! Oh my GLUB! This is not happening! God Nepeta, did you have to knock her down?" a girl with dirty blonde hair helped me up and gave me a huge hug. She smelled like the sea. Her name was Feferi Peixes and she was the most normal and comforting of all my friends.

It was official. I must be crazy. I looked a Karkat "are all of you here?" then I remembered.

_12! 12 of them! A new record!_

Karkat nodded and I nearly screamed. All of them were here. From grumpy Karkat to hyper Nepeta. I had a dream this would happen but it was so insane I wrote it off as just another dream.

I admit I almost fainted.

When I finally got over the shock I met another of my old classmates.

"Hey sis. Tackle flop" and Gamzee Makara flopped on me and I stumbled back a few steps. He always did that after one of our birthday parties where he and Nepeta had to go into a closet together for 3 minutes. Nepeta always said they kinda just talked and afterwards they became great friends. While sometimes Terezi would say she thought the kissed but I could never think of Nepeta doing that; or Gamzee for that matter. Plus I'm almost 100% sure they didn't because I was right next to the door and at one point I heard Gamzee laugh and say 'I bet they think we're like, making out.'

Anyway Gamzee always claims he's too lazy to tackle pounce so he just tackle flops on to people which would be ok if he weren't so tall. But I didn't care now. I was just so happy see him.

I didn't know why I wasn't flipping out. I should be flipping out. None of this made any sense at all. But Karkat promised to explain it later, and no way was he going to get out of it.

Then I heard a voice fighting with someone behind the office desk. I walked over there, wondering who I was going to meet next. When I saw him I got super happy. We had been pretty good friends, and I admit I had a crush on him for a while, but I was over that now. I got up behind him and said "Hey Tav,"

He leaned his head back because he couldn't turn his wheelchair all the way around. "Hi Nikki. I can't believe you're here. We all thought Karkat was full of it!" I walked around to the front of Tavros and gave him a half hug because I couldn't really hug him. Tavros' older brother was arguing with Miss Lynch, the lady behind the desk. He was complaining about Tavros not being in the right classes, which was probably right. Tavros was moved up a year in first grade and was the second smartest kid in are class behind Kanaya. Miss Lynch was explaining they had lost Tavros' files so they had to put him into normal classes until they got another copy. Miss Lynch looked relieved to see me, and said hello.

"Hello Nikki. Do you need help?"

"No," I replied 'I'm just saying hi to Tavros. He went to my old school." I smiled "sorry to be eavesdropping, but I couldn't help but overhear that Tav was in normal classes. Just so you know he was one of the smartest kids in my class. Plus, I would be willing to take him to his classes, if something got messed up with that," I felt badly for overhearing so much but oh well.

Tavros' older brother nodded "I'm ok with her taking him, but not Vriska. They don't have the best relationship. If that's ok with you Tav," Tavros nodded and his brother turned back to Miss Lynch and said it was fine he was in normal classes, he was just worried about the whole Vriska thing. He then left and I took Tavros' wheelchair and pushed him down the hall. No one was in the hall because they were already in homeroom. Miss Lynch had already told my homeroom teacher I was here and was late. Luckily I had my first period class with Tavros so I didn't have to take him to a different class before hurrying to my class.

"Tavros," I asked "Why are you all here?"

"Um, Karkat promised to explain. And it, uh, would take too long for me to tell all of it now." by now we had reached the math room.

I let out a sigh, "Ready Tav? You know they're all going to stare. Just ignore them. They really aren't that bad." Whenever we went anywhere in Whitefork before we entered I would try to make Tavros more confident because wherever he went, people would stare. I guess it was part of human nature, but it made Tavros feel awkward it was just plain rude.

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm ready." He closed his eyes and then opened them and I pushed him though the door.

Suddenly everyone's eyes were on us and I blocked them out and pushed Tavros over to Mrs. Kenny.

"Hey Nikki," she said smiling. She was my favorite teacher at school and she always seemed to put people in a good mode. I could see Tavros relax a bit "You must be Tavros." She smiled again "Your seat is over there in front of Nikki's. I've been looking forward to having you in my class." Suddenly her voice dropped to a whisper "my brother was paraplegic too. It's ok," and Tavros' eyes got big. He didn't know anyone like him or anyone who knew someone like him. I pushed him to a desk in the front row without a chair and sat in my regular desk. Angel sat next to me looking confused. Before I could say anything Karkat came in, Terezi grabbing his arm.

"Kardog don't go so fast. I'm blind remember? I'm not comfortable going fast!"

"For the last time, I am NOT your seeing-eye dog!"

She shrugged "Close enough. Anywhere we're in class now right? Who's in it?"

Karkat looked fully annoyed "Tav and Nikki," he mumbled.

"You sound so annoyed. Are you embarrassed?"

"Shut UP Terezi! I am literally going to kill you, you know," he said though his teeth.

"You wouldn't hurt a poor blind girl would you?" I loved how Terezi didn't care how everyone in the whole class was staring at her. "Anyway, Nikki's in this class?"

Karkat didn't answer. Instead he turned to Mrs. Kenny and apologized for being late. She said it was fine and that there should still be two empty desks. There were and Terezi sat down next to me and Karkat sat in the back row, looking like he wanted to disappear while Terezi turned to me.

"Let me guess they're all staring at me," and with that she turned to face the class and said in her most defiant voice she could "You know it's very rude to stare at the poor blind girl. You all were probably staring at poor Tavros too. It's not very nice to look at us like that," with that she turned to me and said, "so immature."

Now Angel was staring at me with the weirdest look on her face. "Nikki what's going on?"

Before I could reply Terezi sighed and said "Karkat, give me my Braille book," and Angel's eyes went big.

"_Karkat?"_

I realized Karkat wasn't the only one who had a lot of explaining to do.


	3. Story of Us

_I walked slowly into Hussie Elementary and Middle School (HEMS). In the town of WhiteFork there were only two schools for kids my age, W. F. Elementary or HEMS. Of course HEMS was almost impossible to get into. Luckily for me after one year in W. F. I had proven smart enough to join the small private school. Wait, no, calling it small was the understatement of the year. It was the world's smallest school ever! There were only 12 other kids in my whole grade! I admit I was nervous even though I knew almost all the kids in my grade were also new. There was also a kid in my class who had moved up a year, so he should have been in kindergarten and I didn't know how he already moved up a grade. I was nervous and scared and…well, I was a lot of things. But this school couldn't be as bad as W.F was, could it? That had been pretty bad. So this couldn't top that, could it? No this school would be fine._

_I moved my way to my classroom. My mom had already left for work and I felt extremely alone. Finally I got there and sat down low in my seat. I was next to a tall blonde girl who instantly smiled at me._

_"Hi! My name's Feferi. What's yours?"_

_"My name Nikki."_

_"Hi Nikki. Are you new here too? Almost all of us are." That's when a boy with purple streaks in his hair came over and leaned on Feferi's desk._

_"Hey Fef," the boy said "Talking to new kids?"_

_"You're a new kid too Eridan, don't act like you're not,"_

_"Whatever," he said then turned to me "My name's Eridan."_

_"I'm Nikki," I said._

_Feferi introduced me to her friend, Nepeta, who asked if she could call me Nikitty because she loved cats._

_I somehow knew it was going to be a great year._

I was far too distracted in math to pay any attention to the algebra problems Mrs. Kenny was trying to teach us. Almost all of us were distracted though, with 12 new kids in school, and apparently they all knew Nikki Kirk. If I had been in their position I would be gossiping like a maniac too, but instead I was the one they were gossiping about. For once I didn't care if they were talking about me at all. I was too busy wondering what the heck was going on. I guess if only Terezi and Karkat had showed up that would have been explainable, but all of them were here. All of them! The only logical explanation was that I was crazy and this all wasn't really happening. When there were only ten minutes left in class Mrs. Kenny realized there was no hope in teaching us anything and told us we could talk for the rest of the class period. Before Angel could come over to me and ask once more what on earth was going on I made my way to Karkat's desk and leaned up against it.

"So? Do you want to explain this all to me yet or not?"

Karkat glanced up and shrugged, "Honestly no."

"Honestly, I don't care. Tell me why you're all here."

Karkat let out a sigh, "I'll do it later. Not with everyone listening. And don't act like they aren't listening because it's obvious they are,"

I shrugged, "Welcome to L.A. But anyway can you stop putting it off? Do you even care what this is doing to my head? No one else will tell me because they say you said you'd explain it all to me."

"Why can't you be like Gamzee and just call it a miracle? It's so hard to explain,"

I slammed my hand on his desk "I don't care if it's hard to explain! Just tell me what the heck is going on!"

"I told you, not now. Not in front of strangers."

"Ugh! You're impossible! You are literally the worst friend ever."

As I stormed back to my desk I turned around and said, "plus the fact that some of you are here wouldn't qualify as a miracle."

When I sat down I turned to Terezi and said, "your brother is a jerk."

"I know," Terezi said, "what did he do now?"

"Didn't you hear?"

"Nah, I have better things to do then listen to you two flirt."

I started blushing "we aren't flirting! I'm just trying to figure out what the heck is going on and he wouldn't tell me!"

"Fine. I'll tell you, even if he promised to tell."

"Really? You'll tell me what is going on?"

"Of course. What are friends for?"

She turned to face me and began.

"Last year we started having budget cuts at school and stopped getting many new students. The new first grade class only had five kids in it! We really didn't know what was going on for a while, but we knew something was happening when we stopped getting free supplies, we didn't have any field trips, and scholarship kids had to start paying to stay in school. Finally it was decided school would have to be closed right before spring break. It was really abrupt and fast. It was also said we couldn't all go to W.F Middle school because there were way too many of us. So we got a list of all these schools we could go to for people as smart as we are. Then Feferi told us that she and Eridan were moving to L.A. because their moms had gotten jobs here. Of course they could, they own a huge company. They also said Equius's dad could have a job over here to if he wanted and of course he said yes. Kanaya's mom looked up all the different schools on that list and found out L.A High is the best and of course she wanted Kanaya to go the best possible school, so her mom got a teaching job over here and they decided to move.

"So as you know Aradia's parents are divorced and she lives with her mom. Well her mom decided she wanted to live in L.A to possibly be a singer, even though she knows that probably won't happen. You know Aradia's grandmother is fairly rich, so she's paying for their house while as of now Aradia's mom a waitress at Nepeta's mom's restaurant. Nepeta's aunt just opened a restaurant here and when she heard Nepeta's mom got laid off she offered her to become a partner which of course she said yes to. So that's how Nepeta got here."

"Tavros and his brother moved here without their dad, and frankly I have no idea why. He hasn't told anyone, well maybe Gamzee. He might tell us at some point, he might not. I suggest you don't pry."

The bell rang and I only had five minutes to get to my next class. "Quick just tell me why the rest of you are here," I said grabbing Tavros's wheel chair.

Terezi sighed and continued telling me as quickly as possible " Gamzee's dad got arrested so Gamzee moved in with his older brother who lives here, Vriska's mom won this mini lottery and decided to use the money to move here, Sollux's dad got a computer programming job over here , and we're here because…well…" Karkat came up behind Terezi and grabbed her am.

"Terezi, we have to go to P.E."

"I'll tell you later," Terezi said with a sigh, "bye Nikki,"

It was a lot to take in and seemed unreal and more than a coincidence. But I had classes to go to so I could think about the whole thing more. "What class do you have, Tav?"

"English," he replied.

"Me too, let's go," and I pushed him out of the classroom.


	4. levels

**A/N: Hey guys! Quick apology! First I have an editor who isn't very far into reading Homestuck so he deleted the double W's I did with Eridan and I forgot to re-read it so I didn't notice till like right now. Another mistake I noticed was I said Eridan has a mom. So Dualscar is a girl._. Anyway ON WITH THE STORY!**

_It was a summer afternoon a month before I moved. I was over at Terezi's house and Terezi, Karkat, and I were walking their dog in the park. We climbed to the top of a hill and lay down for a while because we had run all the way here to avoid Vriska and Kanaya when we saw them. That was the best thing about summer. You didn't have to see all the people you hate. Not that I will tell them that._

_Terezi gasped for breath, "so weird she was by our house. Wasn't she just bragging the other day about being in California for a month?'_

_"She hadn't left yet dummy," Karkat said rolling his eyes, "her being there was just our stupid luck."_

_"Luck isn't real, I already told you that Karkat," Terezi said turning to face him._

_"That crap you told me? That was just you ranting. I tuned you out at some point because you started talking nonsense."_

_ Terezi pretended to look insulted "it would all make sense if you paid attention,"_

_"Care to tell me what on earth you're talking about?" I said._

_"Her crazy theory about luck and coincidence," Karkat said rolling his eyes, "It doesn't make any sense."_

_"It does too!" Terezi cried before turning to me, "my theory is that there is no such thing as coincidence or luck or anything like that. Everything that happens, everything we do, happens for a reason. Like it's all been planned out and there's little we can do to change it. Everything is part of a plan, a mission we have no idea we're partaking in. All that happens is driven by an unseen goal, and unseen person, making sure we don't mess up too badly."_

_"basicaly god," Karkat said sarcastically._

_"It's not god!" Terezi said 'It's more than that." _

_"That sounds absolutely crazy Terezi," I said with a laugh._

_"Believe what you will but I've heard of worse religions." _

_I laughed again and stared up into the bright blue sky, think how I would never get sick of Terezi and her weirdness._

I pushed Tavros down the hallway, ignoring stares and whispers. English wasn't too far from algebra so before I knew it I was in a classroom again. I pushed Tavros to his seat and he blushed a little and mumbled a thank you. I felt bad for him, with everyone staring at him like he was a freak. Then again, now there were all staring at me and I was ignoring them. I looked around at all the kids in my class. Besides Tav there was Sollux, Gamzee, Nepeta, and…Vriska. I knew Vriska was here but seeing her made it official. Nepeta was sitting next to Gamzee and waved to me as I came in. I walked over to her just to give her a hug and sort of show everyone I did really know them and confirm their stupid rumors. As I hugged her and said "it's so nice to see you. I can't believe you're here!" I also bro-fisted Gamzee to show everyone we were cool. The teacher wasn't here yet so I purposely walked by Vriska and didn't say a word, just to make a point to everyone watching we weren't friends. But I realized that wasn't the best idea because Vriska started talking to me.

"Just when I thought Karkat was crazy and you'd officially walked out of my life forever, you show up here," Vriska said with a smile, standing up.

"Uh, last I remember I was here first, plus I thought we dealt with this before I moved away," I was already regretting walking next to her.

"Dealt with what? Our little 'rivalry' as your stupid fish friend says? I thought we did too but we've had one too many rude Facebook convo's and now you messed with my perfect plan with Tavros."

I roll my eyes "You did that? Don't you mess him enough already?"

She laughs a little, "messing with Tavros is like a full time job. I have to make sure he doesn't grow up to be a hopeless loser."

"Just leave him out of this ok? Don't you have better things to do then torture him and break 8-balls?"

She walked over to me, looking ready to kill. There were things you don't mention when around the people of my old school. Eridan's fear of whales, Sollux's glasses, Aradia's home life, and Vriska and her thing with 8-balls. But now I had talked about that in a room full of her new peers. So I knew she really wanted to kill me, probably slowly and painfully. Then Nepeta and Gamzee realized this had gone too far and walked over.

"Guys," Nepeta said, "it would be much purrfurred if you didn't fight now," but Vriska pushed her out of the way and said, "Yeah shut it cat girl."

"Oh, you're lucky Equius isn't here, or he would have killed you."I said with a laugh. There's another thing you don't mention, Nepeta and Equius's weird relationship.

Right before Vriska was going to murder me I felt myself lifted slightly off the ground and pulled backwards.

"NOPE!" Gamzee said, putting me down and also grabbing Nepeta's arm and pulling us to our desks. Nepeta looked like she was going to kill someone or cry or both and I felt bad she had to break that up, even though she and Feferi had had to do that many times before. When I sat down a saw Jena was here looking at me with the weirdest look on her face.

"What the heck was that? What the crap is going on?" she asked and I wanted to tell her but instead I just said, "My house after school. I'll tell you then."

I also realized Sollux was in front of me and he turned aound"hey Niikkii. 2up?"

"Sup Sollux. It's been a while,"

"Yeah... You aren't 2till mad are you? About the thiing? Vriiska dared me to after 2he a2ked for my quadrant and II 2aid no,"

"What thing? Oh wait…the FB hacking thing? It's cool."

"Good," he said, turning around to his desk as I whisper, "probably," under my breath.

"Wait...is he twinArmageddons?" Jena asked

Sollux looked at her and smiled, "the one and only," and she gasped and he smiled "Iit'2 not that big of a deal," he said but I knew he was enjoying the attention.

"Dude, no one at this school ever been able to hack like that."

"Probably becau2e you're all noob2," Sollux said smiling.

"You think everyone other than you is a noob," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Mo2t everyone iis."

That's when the teacher came in and said hello to the new kids then asked us to hand in our spring break projects and I became lost in the deepest chasms of my mind.

_ TIME-WARP_

It was lunch and I was heading to Social Studies to pick up Tavros. I thought about making a system with Gamzee because he seemed like he was in a lot of Tavros's classes. I ran through the halls, ducking and dodging around people, some of whom looked annoyed while others looked like they wanted to talk to me, probably about the new kids. I was sick of being asked questions about them and usually I ran away before answering. Finally I reached Mrs. Borovec's classroom, panting.

"Sorry, Tav," I said going over and grabbing his wheelchair "P.E. is really far away."

"It's ok. I'm fine," he replied and I pushed him out of the room.

As I walked down the hall I noticed Kanaya and started going faster. I didn't have any classes with Kanaya, probably because she was like a super genius or something, and I don't have anything against her, but she's best friends with Vriska.

Tavros closed his eyes, "Please don't go so fast," he said weakly.

"Sorry," I mumble as I slow down.

"Kanaya's not that bad," he said quietly.

I made a weird noise in response, not really believing him and pushing him into the lunch room. I pushed him into the lunch line. Someone got in line behind me and gave me a hug.

"Guess who?" a girl's voice asks.

"Hey Fef," I said, turning around and returning her hug "What's up?"

"Not much," she said as we moved forward in line. "People here seem nice and I started talking to this girl who says she knows you."

"Who?" I say pushing Tavros forward.

"Uh...Angel, I think."

I smiled, "She's like my bestie," suddenly I realized something. "One of my Besties."

"Cool!" Feferi said smiling, and I was glad I hadn't somehow offended her. "Who else are your BFF's?"

"Angel, India, and Jena,"

"Oh, I talked to India to," she smiled some more "but Jena seems…unapproachable. I'm sure we'll be friends soon."

I laugh at the thought of Jena being unapproachable. "Trust me; you'll be friends in no time." I got out of line with my lunch and realized a problem "Crap. How am I supposed to push you now, Tav?"

"Uh…I could hold it," he said uncertainly.

"You me friend are a genius," I said, handing him my plate.

I sat down at my usual table, but this time Tavros and Feferi were sitting next to me. India, Jena, and Angel were already there. Nepeta sat down next to me and then I saw Terezi come over with help from Karkat, then she told him to leave which he did gladly. I looked at all my friends, sighed and said, "Ok, it's time to explain."

So I closed my eyes, smiled at Feferi and began from the beginning


	5. Looking for the Words

_It was a November afternoon in my 5__th__ grade year, the year the world became more and more messed up for all of us. The first year we started cussing and being rude and wishing we were old enough to drive and half of us hit our growth spurt while others didn't grow at all and the first year we chose friends because they were 'cool' and had major crushes . It was the first level of the so called 'awkward years' and we all didn't know what was going on and we all reacted in weird ways. Long story short, 5__th__ grade was a bad year for everyone. It was also the first time we understood exactly what gossip was._

_Anyway, I was talking to Feferi about whatever major project we were working on. We kind of got off topic and started talking about our favorite book, The Hunger Games. While Feferi tried to convince me that Gale was better than Peeta I looked around at all the other pairs. Karkat was with Gamzee, looking annoyed as usual, Aradia was staring at the wall, ignoring Sollux as he tried to make her feel better, and Vriska and Kanaya were talking and half working on the project._

_For some reason my eyes kept coming back to the two of them as Kanaya wrote everything down while Vriska leaned back in her chair talking about who knows what. Sometimes Vriska would say something and they would both laugh, and I really wanted to know who or what they were talking about. I had a feeling it was probably better if I didn't know._

_"Hello? Earth to Nikki," Feferi said moving her hand in front of my face, "anyone home?'_

_"What?" I said turning to her _

_"We have work to do. Come on."_

_I started paying attention to whatever we were doing and ignored Vriska and Kanaya. I saw them out of the corner of my eye and for some reason I had a feeling they were talking about me. But I blocked them out and kept writing. I could almost hear my mom's voice in my head, telling me to get on top of the class, which seemed a bit extreme since I had already been 4__th__ in the whole class, behind Tavros, Sollux, and Kanaya. Now I was 2__nd__, tied with Sollux. Ever since I started trying to get to the top of the class, Kanaya seemed to be acting weird. Almost threatened or something. I noticed Kanaya stand up and turn in their paper and sit down to talk to Vriska some more. I wondered how she could be done already when Feferi and I weren't even half way done yet. _

_I told Feferi I had to use the rest room and she promised to keep working as I walked out into the hall. While I was walking back to class I ran into Vriska._

_"There you are, nerd," Vriska said smiling, "I've been looking for you."_

_"Really?" I said rolling my eyes, "What do you want now?"_

_"Well it's basically from Kanaya, but she's too nice to say it to your face. She just says it behind your back," she smiled taking a step closer to me, "Anyway she says it's so...um…'_cute_' that you think you could be smarter than she is. It's pure luck you got to be the second smartest kid in class. Well, luck and cheating probably. There's no way a loser like you could ever be smarter than her," she took a step closer, "And we have ways of ruining people. We could make your life a living hell easily. We could embarrass you if front of everyone," then she started whispering, "even poor Tavros. And don't act like you don't like him. Because I know," she backed up and smiled, "just a warning. Later loser," and with that she walked back into class. _

I put down my notebook and closed my eyes. I was lying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, mentally going over the events of the last week. There were certainly a lot of things to go over. Introducing all my friends to my other friends, finding out what exactly was going on, explaining what was going on, convincing myself I wasn't crazy, getting over shock, answering questions, and finally accepting it all and flipping out because of how happy I was. A week since spring break was over and my life had changed. I had also learned why Karkat and Terezi were there, which basically went like this.

"So Terezi, you never told me why you and Karkat were here," I said one day during lunch.

"Oh, oh! Let me tell her!" Nepeta exclaimed excitedly, "I was there!"

"Sure," Terezi said, casually taking some of my food.

"So I was at Terezi's house for a sleepover and she was talking about how everyone was moving to L.A. and that they were moving somewhere because their dad's job offered him a promotion but he would have to move somewhere and because their mom's a lawyer she could probably get a job wherever they moved. Then Karkat came in and said he hoped they didn't go to L.A because they're probably all stuck up jerks. But when Terezi mentioned the name of the school…well I had never seen him smile like that, at least not in a while," Nepeta smiled and giggled a little, "Then he flipped out and said that was where you went to school so we checked Facebook and it didn't say where you went to school and well, no offence, but we didn't believe him. Later that night they found out one of the places their dad could get a job was in L.A and we all begged them to move there which they ended up doing. So that's how they got here! Right?" she asked turning to Terezi who mumbled something that sounded like a yes while stuffing down her sandwich.

After that, everything fell in to place. I introduced Feferi, Terezi, and Nepeta to India, Jena, and Angel, and luckily they didn't hate each other. Everything had gone smoothly and perfectly.

Which is probably why I thought something horrible was going to happen.

It was almost 12 at night and I couldn't sleep. I could almost tell something was going to happen. It was bound to happen at some point. No way would this 'miracle', as Gamzee called it, go off perfectly. Mostly for two reasons, Vriska and Kanaya, but of course there were also all the other kids from my school and from my past experiences with them I learned that drama was like a way of life. Feferi said we all had strong personalities and we were all so different that conflict just happened. I wished that wasn't true but I knew it was. We had never lasted this long without something happening. I decided to ignore my gut feeling and try to fall asleep. I woke up to my alarm clock like usual, but for some reason I lay in bed and let it ring for a few minutes as I stared at the ceiling. Finally I turned off and slumped out of bed. Before I knew it, I was ready and at the street corner, waiting for Terezi and Karkat. I had found out that they didn't live very far away so we had started walking to school together. It was strangely cold for April and I felt like going without them to get out of the cold. I pulled out my phone and texted Karkat.

Me: hey where are you? It's freezing out!

Him: Go without us. We're going to be late.

Him: well, I guess you could wait. We'll be there in around 5 minutes.

Me: nah, I'll go now. See you at school.

I turned my phone on vibrate and slid it into my coat pocket. I started walking and I realized I was going faster without Terezi there and I ended up in the worst place at the worst time.

"Hey Nikkiiiiiiii!" Vriska said as she came out of her house. I forgot she lived so close to me. Sometimes while walking with Karkat and Terezi (well more like just Karkat and me) we'd see Vriska and Kanaya walking to school talking about who knows what. Kanaya came out of her house up the street and walked over to Vriska.

"Hello Vriska," she says, not even acknowledging I was there.

"Hey Naya!" Vriska said to which Kanaya replied, "Don't call me that."

"You know you love it," Vriska said "Don't lie."

Kanaya sighed and closed her eyes, "I'm not lying. Please don't call me that. By the way, hello, Nikki." I didn't say anything in response.

Vriska no longer seemed to care I was there "Are you okay, Kanaya? You seem upset."

Kanaya put on a straight face then sighed again, "Vriska, we need to talk."

Vriska laughed uneasily, "What do you mean? You making it sound like we're going out and," suddenly something in her mind clicked, "and you're going to break up with me," she ended quietly.

"Vriska…" Kanaya looked kind of confused; like she wasn't sure how to explain. "It's just…" she trailed off.

"You ARE breaking up with me, aren't you? You don't want to be friends anymore!" Vriska looked like she was going to cry, which was impossible. She never cried.

"Vriska it isn't that simple…"

"What is it then?" Vriska stopped walking.

"I just don't want to be best friends anymore. We can still be friends but…" Kanaya trail off, not finishing her sentence.

"But what? What did I do?"

Suddenly Kanaya looked really angry, like she had just had a fight in her mind, and it was over, "What did you do? You're an arrogant jerk to everyone, sometimes even me. You don't know how to be a good friend and sometimes it seems like you're only my friend because I'm smart. I can't seem to make any other friends because they think I'm a jerk like you," now even Kanaya looked like she was going to flip out. This was so out of character for her.

Vriska looked like she was about to blow. "Is this about Aradia? You've been weird ever since you started hang out with her. Trust me, she's a lost cause. She's dead inside, and you can't save her now," Vriska said.

"See what I mean? Have you even hung out with her? Do you know anything about her? Because she's told me what she's been though and she's braver than you. She's braver than all of us. She has every right to lock out the world!"

Vriska looked like she was trying to find the word to explain, but Kanaya started talking again. "I've always wanted to be friends with Nikki. She seems nice and smart, but she hates me, all because of you. Feferi told me everything you said to her, acting like I said all that. I don't care if she's smarter than me or not."

"WHATEVER!" Vriska yelled, now crying, "I never wanted you to be my friend anyway. I just hung out with you because you I felt bad for you!"

"You felt bad for me? I doubt you could ever feel pity for anyone. You certainly don't have any for Tavros."

"You're a hopeless nerd anyway! I hate you!" Vriska said, fully crying now.

"I thought we could still be friends, but I guess I messed up that. Honesty it hurts more than knives sometimes. Good-bye Vriska," then she turned to me, "I'm very sorry for everything Nikki, and I hope we could one day be friends," and with that she turned and walked away.

I stood there, stunned. Finally I figured out what I wanted to do, and I sat down next to Vriska.

"Vriska…" I said, not sure what I should say.

"GO AWAY! I know you're happy this happened, please just leave," Vriska said through sobs.

"I'm not happy to see anyone break up with their best friend, even you." And with that I leaned over and hugged her.

"It will be okay. Trust me," she didn't even try to push me away.

So we sat there on the sidewalk and hugged.

**A/N: I know this is very OOC for both of them so please don't get mad. *hides behind Gamzee* Please don't hurt meh.**


	6. Reason to Remember my Name

_It was first recess on a September afternoon in third grade. Nepeta told Feferi and me that she was going to play with Equius which we were fine with. Just as Feferi and I were about to play Eridan came over._

_"Fef?" He looked sad, "can you come in wwith me? I need to talk to you"._

_"Oh my glub Eridan!" she turned to me "Sorry Nikki! I need to help Eridan."_

_"It's fine," I said._

_"You sure?"_

_Given the fact Nepeta was busy and I had no other friends it was probably not ok. But Eridan looked like he needed help and I had my notebook to write in anyway. "It's fine. Trust me."_

_She looked at me, as if deciding if I was lying or not. "Ok. Come on Eridan," and as they walked away she held his hand tightly._

_I took my notebook everywhere with me then so I already had it along with a pencil. I sat down with my back up against the school and began writing. I noticed another girl was sitting on the wall, too. I knew her name was Terezi Pyrope and her mom and Karkat's dad had just gotten married. I wondered why she was by herself and thought about going over there to talk to her, but I was too shy to do that. Instead I did something I often did when I had writer's block, I people watched. I saw Sollux and Karkat hanging out and he was looking annoyed while Sollux looked like he was just confused. Gamzee was talking to Tavros, probably about something weird. I also saw Vriska and Kanaya talking on the swings. Then Vriska said something to Kanaya who then nodded and left to go hang out with Aradia. Vriska then walked over to where Terezi was._

_"Hey Terezi," she said._

_"Vriska is that you?" Terezi said sitting up, "go away. Leave me alone."_

_"Now that wasn't very nice, was it? Why don't you want me to hang out with you?"_

_"Because you're mean. Now go away," Terezi randomly swung her cane around, trying to hit Vriska, but she backed away._

_"No! I just came over to say hi and ask where all your friends are. Oh wait, you don't have any."_

_"Yeah, I know. I get it. And for you information I do have a friend. He just goes to a different school." _

_"Oh you mean that guy you made up?"_

_"DAVE IS NOT MADE UP! Just ask Karkat!" Terezi actually looked mad now._

_"He'd be lying too and he'd do it just because you guys are now brother and sister."_

_Terezi seemed really mad. "Really, Vriska just go away. Go talk to Kanaya about clothes or something dumb like that."_

_"I thought you would like someone talking to you for a change, since all you ever do is sit around doing nothing. Seriously I thought you were special ed or something, hanging out by yourself all the time, but it turns out blindness doesn't mess with your brain."_

_ Terezi sighed ,"Really Vriska, making fun of the blind girl?"_

_"Kind of," Vriska said, smirking._

_Terezi swung her cane again, but time she hit Vriska who let out a cry._

_"You JERK!" Vriska cried and slapped her and Terezi screamed. Vriska stormed off while Terezi's hands went over her eyes, which didn't make sense. In a moment I was next to her._

_"Are you ok?' I asked_

_"Go away!" she cried. Her sunglasses were on the ground, cracked. "Wait, who is this?"_

_"Nikki," I replied._

_"Oh, I thought you were Vriska," She mumbled, moving her hands around on the ground, "where are my glasses?"_

_I picked them up. They were cracked down the middle of each of the lenses. "They're cracked," I told her._

_"Crap, really?" she moved her hand from her eyes, and I understood why she covered them up. They were a strange milky color, so dense you could barely see her blue irises. Though I thought they were pretty, I guess she was embarrassed._

_"C-can you get Karkles? And…and do you have any sunglasses?" She asked shakily. She was all shaken up, and probably embarrassed even though I was the only one here._

_"I'll go check," I said before running back into the classroom. The teacher wasn't there so I went straight to my backpack without any questions. Inside my backpack were a pair of glasses with dark red lenses and I grabbed those and ran back outside. _

_I ran over to Karkat. "Karkat!" I said, panting and a bit nervous. It was the first time I had ever talked to Karkat I think ,"Terezi needs you."_

_"What does she want now?" he said, looking annoyed._

_I grabbed his arm, "This is serious Karkat."_

_He turned to me, seeming to understand it was a big deal, "Ok. Where is she?"_

_Not letting go of his arm, I dragged him over to her. "Crap Terezi. Are you ok? What happened?"_

_I handed her my sunglasses, "Vriska," she replied shortly, "Can you see my eyes?"_

_"Nope," Karkat replied honestly, "Come on Terezi. Let's go inside."_

_And with help from Karkat and me, we made our way inside. _

It was after English and I was pushing Tavros down the hallway. People had stopped staring and watching us, which I was grateful for. After a week they had gotten used to him and Terezi and it was just life now. I pushed him next to the drinking fountain.

"Bye Tav. Gamzee should be here soon. If not text me and I'll come help," I said before walking away. Gamzee was almost always in his own world and I wouldn't be surprised if he forgot to pick up Tavros at some point. When we finally figured out a system for picking up Tavros so I didn't have to run from class to class all the time I told him not to forget and he said, "Don't worry, sis. I would never forget Tavros." But still I was uneasy.

I opened my locker and looked around, lingering longer than necessary just to make sure Tavros was fine. Suddenly someone came up behind me.

"Hey Nikkiiiiiiii!" It was Vriska, obviously. All day she had been on edge, for obvious reasons. She also had been a jerk to me during English so I guess our 'moment' walking to school was over, and we were back to the way we used to be.

"Hey Vriska. What do you want?" I asked, turning to face her, turning my back on Tavros.

She let out a sigh, "I was wondering if you want to not hate each other."

I laughed, "That's a weird question."

"Don't laugh. I'm really being serious. I don't hate you that much and we really don't have that good of a reason to hate each other. We don't have to be friends, but can we please stop always being at each other's throats."

She did seem serious. "I have a million reasons to hate you. You just don't have any reason to hate me."

Suddenly she went pale. "What?" I asked.

"Shut up," she whispered, looking behind me.

Almost everyone was out of the hallways now and Tavros was still sitting next to the drinking fountain. Then I noticed someone else. Lexi Hill was the new found 'mean girl' who came after winter break. She was a jerk, but also a lot stronger that most people and she wasn't just a bully to girls, which most girls were like. She was a jerk to everyone.

"Crap…" I mumbled under my breath.

"Hey Tavros," Lexi said smiling a completely fake smile.

"Um…hey Lexi." Tavros looked nervous and I wanted to go over and help until Vriska whispered "Stay here, ok? Don't interfere. Not yet," then she darted away across the hall, leaning up against her locker, pretending not to watch.

"Anyway, I have a question for you Tavros," Lexi said in the most snobby way possible.

"Uh…really?" Tavros said, slightly moving his wheelchair backwards so he was pressed up against the wall.

"How come you can't stand?" she said, taking a step forward. Tavros started blushing. He hadn't ever told anyone about why he was paralyzed.

"Uh…um…," Tavros said, unsure of how to reply. Lexi took a step closer.

"Have you ever tried standing? Hmm?"

"Um…no…"

"Come on Tavros!" she kept closer, "just try." She had the evilest smile I've ever seen on her face. Suddenly she grabbed him by his arms and lifted him up.

"Um…Lexi…put me down." He tried to twist out of her arms, but her grip stayed.

"No," she said, "come on Tavros." She pinned him up against the wall. "You have to try." And she let go.

He tried to catch himself on the wall, but to no avail. He fell down with a moan.

Lexi laughed, "you're so pathetic Tavros. Why can't you just be normal? You're a freak."

Tavros used his arms to sit up awkwardly. He moaned a little and moved his hand to rub his eyes, which made him fall over again and Lexi laughed.

"Are you going to stand up for yourself Tavros? I mean figuratively because it's obvious you can't really do it." She kicked him and pushed him back against the wall. "God you're pathetic. Will you ever be able to anything other than be absolutely useless? It would be a favor to all of us if you just died." She backed up and noticed something.

"Oh is this your wheelchair?" she walked over it "It seems pretty lame, so I guess it's perfect for you." She smiled again "It's manual isn't it? Is that why you need the dorky Nikki girl and the clown freak pushing you around all the time? Are they your only friends? I'm surprised you have any at all."

She walked back over to him, "Really Tavros? You aren't going to say anything? Are you scared?" she dropped picked him up again, pinning against the wall again, "you're pathetic."

Just when I realized I had to do something, Vriska was over there in a moment and pinned Lexi up against the wall.

"Only _I_ mess with Tavros," she said, growling. I guess that was touching in a weird way.

Vriska's arm was over Lexi's throat, "You think _he's _pathetic? Because I'm pretty sure you're the pathetic one here," she let her drop to the ground.

"Uh…" Lexi said, at a loss for words. She tried to get back up, and failed.

Vriska put her foot on Lexi's stomach, "Come on. Are you going to fight back? Or do you only pick on people who can't fight back?" She kicked her up against the wall, making her cry in pain. Vriska stood back, letting her stand back up. When she did, Vriska slammed her up against a locker and Lexi seemed to get dizzy and as she sunk to the ground Vriska kneed her in the stomach.

"Stand up, because you're lucky you can," Vriska said, and evil smile plastered on her face.

"Please...Please just stop," Lexi said between coughs of agony.

"Oh, I'm not even started yet," Vriska looked like a madwomen, her eyes open wide, a smile on her face that wouldn't fade and her hands moved up to Lexi's throat and grabbed it and Lexi coughed up blood.

"Too bad not everyone is here. This would be such a show for them!" Gamzee came out of the shadows and picked up Tavros, "You ok Tavbro?" he asked. I came over to help him.

'Don't EVER make fun of Tavros's disability again, ok? I would have done a lot worse, but I have reasons for staying out of juvy." and with that she left go and Lexi slunk to the ground.

"MISS SERKET!" Mrs. Borovec had come out of her classroom and saw us. Vriska dropped Lexi onto the ground and Gamzee laughed and kicked her.

"What are you doing?!" Mrs. Borovec cried.

"Lexi was beating up Tavros so I came to his defense," Vriska said, matter of factly.

Mrs. Borovec looked at all of us. "All of you. Up to the office."

Gamzee smiled "Come on Tavbro. Piggie Back ride." And we started walking up to the office. It was going to be the first time I ever went up to the office, yet I was strangely happy. Vriska and I were on either side of Lexi and we bro-fisted behind her back.


	7. Airplane

_Um…Nikki told me to write in this for some reason. I guess it's a big deal since I don't think anyone's ever even touched her notebook before. She hasn't told me what's in it and trust me I haven't read it. I wouldn't read someone's personal crap._

_Anyway I think I know what I'm going to write in this. I really wanted to tell her, well more like you because you're probably the only one who's going to read this. So I guess I really wanted to tell you why I'm here, in L.A. No one knows besides Gamzee and I guess it's really hard to talk about. But here we go. I want you to know._

_I was skypeing with Gamzee in March after he moved. It was around 12:45 in the morning and my dad and Rufioh was having another fight, but that happens all the time. This time it seemed more intense, and I was pretty sure my dad was drunk._

_"Tavbro? Are you ok?" I get that Gamzee was concerned but some things I didn't even want to talk to him about. _

_"Yeah…they're just fighting again. It's fine."_

_"You sure Tavbro? I'm sure Kurloz wouldn't mind if you moved over here."_

_I admit it sounded like a good deal. But I felt I couldn't so I shook my head._

_"Tavros is that a scar?" he asked. I had a cut on the side my face from the last fight which I hadn't told him about._

_Gamzee leaned back and sighed, "Tavros this is serious. You have to leave." _

_"Gamzee…"_

_"I'm serious, Tav."_

_"I can't leave Rufioh. I just…" I didn't know what to say. It just felt wrong running away._

_"Tavros, you need to leave. I worry about you all the time. You're my freakin' best friend and I don't want you getting hurt."_

_"Yeah I know it's just-" there was a crash from the other room and I flinched. "Crap. Gamzee I think I should go."_

_"Ok. But Tavbro? Please think about that. That place is like torture for you. God I feel like killing someone."_

_I laughed nervously, "Not really right? You took your pills right?"_

_"Wait...Yeah I took them." The hesitation scared me "I just don't like to see you like this Tavbro."_

_I sighed "Bye Gamzee." And I logged off. I felt like flipping out, which I learned is hard to do in a wheelchair. My whole life I had been scared. Scared of my dad, scared of Rufioh, scared of Gamzee when he got mad, scared of other people, scared of getting attached. I was scared of everything and my life would have been so much better if I lived by myself, living on pizza and spending all of my time on Tumblr. Sadly that was not meant to be, and I was stuck with this. I moved my hand over the cut on the side of my face. I couldn't believe some kids actually wanted to do drugs and get drunk. I knew I would never do that, ever, because I had seen what could happen to people when they were high or drunk. In fact, it had happened to me once, at a party Rufioh was having, and I still would get cravings at weird times. My whole body would start shaking and someone would have to calm me down. I'm pretty sure it was some girl named Roxy who was at the party who did it, but honestly that whole night was a blur now._

_ I closed my laptop and slowly rolled myself to my bed. Not long ago Rufioh would help me do everything. We saved up money in a box in his room so we could buy a battery powered wheelchair. But then we got robbed and dad kept using any money he found to feed one of his many addictions. I somehow made my way onto my bed and tried to tune out the fight and fall asleep._

"Omg he's so adorable! Is he your brother, Rufioh?"

"Um…" I mumbled awkwardly.

"Why is he in a wheelchair? Whatever. He's just so cute! Want some punch?" the girl handed me a cup of some sort of drink. I drank some and realized it was Faygo but…different.

The girl smiled and made a really weird laugh and I could tell she was drunk, but I had lost Rufioh in the crowd and couldn't exactly leave. "Have some more." She smiled "I have a feeling this isn't legal. Whatever." She handed me some more, "I have some more stuff you might like."

_I woke up, sweating. Rufioh was in my room throwing stuff into a duffle bag._

_"We're leaving," he said matter of factly. "We can't stay here anymore."_

_"What?" I asked as he threw my laptop into the bag "Where's dad?"_

_"Passed out." He turned to me "Why have to go Tav." I noticed a new cut on his face and arm._

_"I-I know." I didn't know what to say "What happened? In the fight?"_

_Rufioh sighed "I don't want to talk about it." I could understand that "Anyway I'm just glad you weren't a part of it. He was really drunk."_

_I looked at the time. It was 1:30 in the morning. Rufioh was done throwing things into the duffle. "Where are we going?" I asked because I couldn't think of anywhere to go._

_"Hopefully L.A." he sighed, "can you get into your wheelchair, or do you need help?"_

_"I got it," I said and half rolled, half crawled into my wheelchair. Rufioh put the duffle into my lap and it was was oddly light. He already had one with his stuff in it. He grabbed the keys off the hall table as well as his wallet which had all of the money he had made working at this coffee shop with his ex girlfriend Damara. He helped me into our Battered old Pinto which had gone though two accidents and now would barely start. He finally got the car going then handed me his cell phone._

_"Call Kurloz ok?" I nodded and dialed in Gamzee's new number and handed the phone back to my brother._

_"Hey Tavbro. You ok?" Gamzee's voice said on the other end of the line._

_"Hey Gam. It's Rufioh. "I need to talk to Kurloz. Now."_

_"It's a bit hard to talk to Kurloz over the phone," Gamzee pointed out and Rufioh cursed._

_"I forgot. Gamzee, would you mind talking to Kurloz for me."_

_"Sure. I doubt he'll care." There was a brief silence and I stared out my window. I wondered why Rufioh put me in the back seat of the car, but I ignored it._

_ "Ok. I just had a huge fight with my dad and there is no way we can stay here."_

_"Yeah, I know," Gamzee said. There was a silence. "Ok, go on."_

_"I was wondering if Tav and I could stay with you and Kurloz for a while. I could probably find some way to get enough money to rent an apartment soon, but I don't have enough now."_

_There wasn't any noise on the other end. Finally Gamzee answered "He says it's fine. Do you have a flight?"_

_"Yeah. I have my ways. Thanks Gamzee. I should go."_

_"Rufioh?" I asked "Can I talk to Gamzee?"_

_ "Can Tav talk to you?" Rufioh asked._

_"Yeah. I want to talk to him too," Gamzee said and Rufioh handed my back his phone._

_"Gamzee?" I said weakly._

_"It's ok Tavbro. I'm here." Suddenly everything that had happened to me seemed too catch up with me and I broke down. Tears streamed down my face. "Don't leave," I whispered._

_"It's ok Tavros. I'll always be there."_

I put down the notebook and looked at Tavros. We were in the office, waiting for the principal to come and lecture us. "Are you okay Tavros?" I asked, and I wasn't just talking about the recent fight.

"What? Yeah I'm fine now. I'm more surprised Vriska stood up for me," he said with a laugh.

Vriska smiled, "And don't think I'll forget it anytime soon. I shall forever hold it against you."

"Heck no you won't," Gamzee said, "I'll freakin' fight you before you try to make Tavbro do anything." I remembered what Tavros said about having to take pills and suddenly I was scared for Vriska.

"Yeah whatever," Vriska said rolling her eyes, "anyway, are you sure you're okay? Other than me mentally scaring you by being nice?"

"Yeah, I'm basically fine now," he said but of course he wasn't. He had bruises on his arms he tried to cover up by wearing his hoodie, but we still knew they were there. He moved his hand to his face and touched the cut that he mentioned in his entry which now was just a faint scar. I looked at him for a long time and wondered how I never noticed.

I wanted to talk to him, but I couldn't do it here or now. I moved my hand so it touched his and he turned and smiled at me and grabbed my hand. So we held hands until we had to go into the principal's office.

"How could you forget his wheelchair?" I asked as Gamzee picked up Tavros.

"Other crap was going on," he said, "but it's fine as long as no one messes with it."

I shrugged and we walked into the principal's office which seemed too small for all of us, but we managed to fit. Gamzee, Tavros, and I sat there kinda awkwardly as the principal, whose name I couldn't remember, asked Vriska what had happened.

"She was beating up Tavros so I flipped out and beat the crap out of her because Tav wasn't doing anything, for obvious reasons. And don't even try to deny it," she said, glaring at Lexi "we have witnesses."

Lexi didn't say anything. Finally she broke the silence "Yeah. That's what happened." She threw her hands up "Suspend me. I honestly don't care. I just want to get away from these psychos." She looked at us, and she honestly looked scared. "You're all crazy. All of you, even the cute guy, Karkat, or whatever his name is. How did you guys even get in here? You need to go a mental hospital."

Tavros grabbed Gamzee's arm. "Don't worry Tavbro. She isn't worth it," and Tavros let go.

The principal looked at all of us. We were a freak show, a guy wearing clown makeup, a paraplegic, and a new girl who had just beat up another student who now seemed mentally scarred. It even seemed bizarre on my end, and I knew all of them.

"Miss Serket and Miss Hill stay here. The rest of you can leave and return to class. We stood up and left, Tavros on Gamzee's back.

As we walked into hall the bell rang, "that's one way to ditch class," Gamzee said putting Tavros down into his wheelchair.

"Hey Nikki," Tavros said "Did you read my entry?"

"Yeah," I said quietly, "yeah I did."

"Wait, what?" Gamzee said, looked from Tavros to me "What did you tell her Tavbro?"

"About the night I left," Tavros said, "she needed to know."

"Yeah," Gamzee replied, zoning out, "Yeah, she did."

"Tavros…" I didn't know what to say.

"Please, please don't say anything right now," he looked up and smiled at me. "It's ok. I'm all right."

I looked at him, unsure if he was lying. I knew he wasn't all right, he couldn't be, but he officially didn't want to talk about it. "Ok," I said leaning over and half hugging him, "I understand." But that was a stupid thing to say, because I didn't and I never would.

There was a short silence until Gamzee smiled and said, "come on. Let's go to lunch." And the three of us walked to lunch together, me holding Tavros's hand.


	8. Magic

_Jena, India, Angel and I were over at India's house for her birthday. We were giggling like stupid idiots about something. It was twelve at night and we had no intentions of going to sleep anytime soon. I don't know how we got on the topic of how we all ended up living here, but somehow we did._

_"Actually," Angel said, looking at all of us, "I've been wanting to tell you that for a while. Why I'm here."_

_"Ok," Jena said, "We're listening."_

_Angel sighed, "Ok I used to live in New York. And no, I'm not talking about New York City. I'm talking about upstate New York. I was the middle child with an older and younger brother. At the time my brother was a Junior at this 'special' high school for really smart people, kind of like the one we go to now. My younger brother was only 6. We lived in a trailer park. Like a really bad trailer park with everyone always getting robbed or drunk or something. My mom was always trying to support us. I don't have a dad and don't frackin' ask me why. She did really try her best to make money, but at every job she would either get laid off or fired. We also go robbed several times, losing a ton of money. At school I never told anyone about how poor I was, but at some point, someone found out. Everyone at school was snobby rich kids so they made a huge deal out of everything. So I kinda got bullied sometimes. I had a bunch of free time after school and there was nothing to do at home so I, and…" she blushed a little, embarrassed._

_"What?" India asked._

_"Well… I always believed it would get better, even when my brother didn't and I kept my little brother's spirits high. You see when I was younger, like three, things were a lot better. I always thought we could somehow get that back. So I started trying to do things that might help, but there really wasn't anything I could do. Then one day I was walking around town and I saw a magic kit in a store." She looked away, "and well…I had a little money and something compelled me to buy it. So after that I had a strange _obsession _with magic, even though it didn't work and I knew in my heart it wasn't real. One day I went to this old magic shop, looking for 8 balls because my last one broke. Instead I found a really old magic book. I brought it home and tried almost all of the spells. None of them worked until I found one that claimed it could improve your luck and help you out if you needed it. I did that spell and there were some lights so I assumed it was gonna work. Then I told my mom to buy a lottery ticket, so I actually gave her some of my money to buy one. She did and we won. After much celebrating we decided to move to L.A. and spent most of the money on food and clothes and flights and our house and stuff. But when we moved here she went sort of mad with money and bought another lottery ticket without me doing to spell first and we only won $50. I started doing the spell every morning even though my mom doesn't buy lottery tickets anymore. My older brother, Michael, is a scientist now and he makes a lot of money off of that and my younger brother, Daniel, is in elementary school. We're all happy and stable now."_

_"Wow…" I said. I really had no idea how to respond to that. I usually don't know how to respond when people tell me about their lives. _

_"Yeah, but we're all good now."_

After the whole Tavros thing, Vriska got suspended for two days, and even though Lexi only got suspended for two days as well, she changed schools, probably because she was terrified or whatever. When Vriska came into homeroom after her suspension was finished we all kind of stared at her until I started clapping. Then everyone joined in, including Terezi, who hated Vriska. It seemed like everyone hated Lexi, for obvious reasons. That included the teachers. After that Vriska had finally gained the "bad girl" status she obviously wanted to achieve since she got here. She also seemed less mean with Tavros all the time, still mocking him sometimes, but never really intensely and usually joking. I hung with Tavros more now as well, never bringing up anything about his past or anything like that. He was trying to postpone our conversation about it, which I could understand.

The story about what happened with Lexi quickly spread around the school, the story changing until it was completely different. I left Vriska to the verifying of what was real or not since she seemed to enjoy doing that. Sometimes it seemed like she didn't even miss Kanaya.

After that, Vriska and I weren't best friends or anything but whenever we fought it didn't get very intense. 'Fights' isn't even a good word to describe them. We basically just tried to annoy the other and called each other losers or something like that, then left. They were pretty lame excuses for fights.

It didn't take me very long to realize Vriska didn't have many good friends. Before Kanaya had been her only real friend. Oftentimes she would be alone while others talked about things she didn't know or care about. Part of me wanted to go over and talk to her, but I knew she'd be rude and we'd end up annoying each other and I tried my best to avoid that.

One day, I believe it was May 1st, I had to stay at Angel's house overnight on a school night (I don't remember why). My mom rarely let my stay over people's house on weekdays because she didn't want me falling asleep in math or whatever. We were walking to school and then we saw Vriska walking around up ahead of us.

"Crap!" I whispered. I was really tired and definitely not a morning person so I didn't want to talk to Vriska at the time. "I'm going to go hide really quick, okay? Or take the long way around. I am NOT in the mood to run into her right now!" Angel shrugged her shoulders and I walked back, but stayed and hid to see what exactly went down. I don't think they had talked much before and I was afraid Vriska was going to be a jerk to Angel.

"Hey, Vriska," Angel said. She had nothing against Vriska, so I didn't get mad at her.

Vriska looked up. She had been sitting on a park bench where you could wait for the bus if you wanted to, but the bus had already left. "Oh, hey."

"Where are you going?"

"Ditching school. I'm not in the mood to deal with Kanaya's and Nikki's crap right now."

"She _is _trying to be nice to you, you know," Angel said, which I guess is partly true and I was glad she was standing up for me.

"Whatever. That loser isn't around right now, right?"

Angel rolled her eyes "We aren't around 24/7. So 'no'," which was strangely ironic.

Vriska looked kind of surprised, then rolled it off. "So what do you do when she isn't around?"

"Um…" Angel said awkwardly, "if I told you, you'd think I was crazy."

"Come on. As long as it's not something stupid like Hello Kitty or Rainbows, it can't be that bad. Trust me, I don't judge. I do the weird crap."

Angel laughed, "Heck no! Well…I do believe in, you know, miracles and stuff, so I don't hate on rainbows that much. But if you really want to know, I like…_magic."_

"You mean Harry Potter and crap?" she said, trying to cover up a laugh and failing.

"No!" she said, defensively, "I mean like real magic. Like, fortune telling, spells, and luck. I actually have all these different 8-balls," it seemed like somehow Angel had gone into her own world as she started talking.

At the mention of 8-balls Vriska stopped, "What?"

"See, I knew you would think it was weird." She started walking, leaving Vriska behind her.

"Wait no!" Vriska stood up and ran to check up with her. Luckily they weren't out of earshot. "I always saw you from afar and hanging out with friends, but you always seemed like the shy, perfect, nice girl. I never imagined you would be like this and I also am in love with magic," Vriska said.

"Really?" Angel's eyes got big, "Do you just like it, or do you just use it?"

"Well...I wanted to believe in it, but when I tried before it didn't work so I just became a little," she looked embarrassed, "obsessed. Also, I'm almost 100% sure my family's cursed."

"I can only find one spell that's really worked for me, and I use it every day, just to be safe," Angel was blushing now, too.

"You what? What kind of a spell?"

"I could teach it to you. It's a luck spell so if your family really is cursed it should help"

"REALLY?!" That came out louder than Vriska intended, and she completely lost her cool.

"Yeah," Angel said matter of factly.

They kept walking. Vriska pondering the possibilities and being the most hopeful she'd ever been while Angel sympathized with her, quietly walking. I walked the long way around till I reached my house. I could see Angel and Vriska up the road, still talking.

"Vriska, I'm glad we had this little chat. I think it was good for both of us. Good for me because I now know someone else that likes magic, and good for you because you now have a new _friend." _emphasizing the last word to make sure she got the point across. She smiled and kept walking to school as Vriska stood there.

"I can't believe it," Vriska said smiling, before walking away in the other direction.


	9. Hiatu

Hey guys. It's been over a month posted on this story so I'm really sorry I did announce this hiatus. I have a ton of homework and some other stuff going on and I've been working on other stories and fanfictions i like more this this story. I'm not stopping this story but i want you to know I may not update for a while. Thanks for reading and I hope you check out my other stuff (It's much better)

Thank you

~Kayla


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